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Information about Native American Tribes and Communities

The first people to live in North America migrated over a long period of time from Siberia.  These people eventually spread out to populate virtually all corners of North, Central and South America.  They developed several thousand distinct languages, practiced varying forms of hunting, gathering and agricultural production, and observed a variety of religious beliefs. 

Some North American Native American groups or cultures were very small and occupied small geographical niches. In particular, this was the norm in California.  In other places, one group came to dominate a large geographical area and developed complex means of communication and governance.  Examples of this are the Iroquois Confederacy and the Anasazi people.

Contact with Europeans beginning in 1492 brought rapid and devastating change to the original people of North America.  Scholars estimate that 90 percent of native populations were killed by disease and violence during the first 10 years of contact with Europeans and, later, Americans.  At least 200 tribal groups have disappeared completely.  Most others survived displacement and relocation.

Native Americans are not simply people of the past - they are very much Americans of the present and the future.  The following information is taken largely from the excellent "Native American FAQs Handbook" by George Russell. There are currently 559 federally recognized tribes in the US and over 200 tribes which are seeking formal recognition.  Today, tribal communities occupy all points on the economic spectrum - from very poor to very rich.  In general, however, Indian communities lag far behind mainstream American communities in many important social indicators.

Health

bulletAlcohol mortality is 627% greater for Indian people than all other races combined.
bulletTuberculosis is 533% greater than all other Americans.
bulletDiabetes is 6.8 times greater than all other Americans.
bulletFetal Alcohol Syndrome is 33 times higher than for other Americans
bulletOne in six adolescents has attempted suicide - four times that of all other teenagers
bulletHomicide is 63% greater than all other Americans

Education

In the past, education was a tool used by the US government to suppress Indian identity.  Native children were forcibly separated from their families and forced to attend boarding schools where they were not allowed to speak their native language, were forced to wear European clothing and eat European food.  Many children were subjected to harsh physical punishment and emotional abuse.  Partly as a result of this legacy, Native American educational achievement lags far behind the nation as a whole.

bulletOnly 52% of Native American youth finish high school
bulletOnly 17% attend college and only 4% graduate

Economic Conditions

Because of isolation, unemployment and lack of business development, third world living conditions are typical of many reservations:

bullet75% of the population earn less than $7,000 per year
bullet45% live below the poverty level
bulletThe average unemployment rate is 45%
bulletUnemployment on some reservations is 90%.

Indian gaming has improved this picture on those reservations with casinos, but even most gaming tribes lag well behind the rest of the US.

Housing

Housing in tribal communities tends to be old and overcrowded because of the lack of financial resources and home financing options.  Although these conditions aren't universal, on the Navajo Nation 46% of the housing has no electricity, 54% has no indoor plumbing and 82% is without a telephone.  Even in California, their are communities like the Yurok Reservation where over half of the population lives without electric or phone service.

More Information

Most of the information above comes from an excellent and very readable book by George Russell called "Native American FAQs Handbook."  Unfortunately, it appears that this book is out-of-print.  If you know where it can be purchased, please let us know.

There are literally hundreds of sources of good information about Native Americans and tribal communities.  Visit your local library or book store, or surf the net.  For current events, we recommend two news sources:

bulletIndian Country Today, the nation's leading Native American news source
bulletThe American Indian Report, a monthly news magazine

Native Data.com is a website containing lots of valuable information and links about tribes throughout the US.

For a broad historical perspective, a good starting place is one of the following books.  (When you purchase a book from Amazon.com and go through one of our links below, Amazon donates 4% of what you purchase to SSP!)

"American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World" by David E. Stannard.  This is an excellent, readable account of what happened when native populations encountered Europeans and European-Americans.

 

"How the West Was Lost" is a series of video tapes produced in 1993 by the Discovery Channel.  They are excellent.  Each tape contains two hour-long segments dealing with a different episode in American Indian history.  Volume I covers Navajo history and the flight of the Nez Perce tribe.

You can find these tapes on Amazon.com if you look hard enough!  Search using the link below and SSP will receive 4% of any purchases you make.

 

"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" By Dee Brown.  This is the classic, ground-breaking look at American history from the perspective of Native Americans.

 

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Phone: 916-488-6441Fax: 916-484-0917

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Date page modified: 01/28/2010